Major League Women's Baseball
(MLWB) is a professional baseball organization. It was founded in 1997 as the women's counterpart to Major League Baseball and began play in 2000, and is overseen by the Commissioner of Women's Baseball, who reports to the MLB/ 's . The regular season is played from April to September with the All Star game played near the end of the season in July and the Women's World Series which is played in September after the season ends. Most of the teams share a market with their MLB counterparts, with some sharing stadiums with them. One team was in a market previously home to a MLB team while at least three are in a market without a MLB team. History Early years (1997-2000) The creation of the MLWB was approved in 1997 by then- , . The first test game was played on January 17, 1998 at the . Women's softball players from local colleges were recruited to volunteer for the teams - the Texas Beauty and the Arlington Flash - whilst staff from the and the volunteered to help with the game, with the guarantee of a tryout should the league take off. A film crew was sent by to record the game for promotional purposes. 1999 was mostly spent by the MLWB trying out athletes and playing two more test games with the same teams - one was played in at the and another was played in at the . The MLWB began it's first season on April 5, 2000 to little fanfare. The first game featured the Boston Dream facing the Baltimore Bettys at in . The game was televised nationally in the United States on . By the start of the 2000 season, MLWB had arranged broadcasting deals with FOX (one of the two then-MLB rights holders) and respectively. APT syndicated live MLWB broadcasts to member stations - with being the originating station for APT. Boston domination and league expansion (2000-2003) The MLWB 2000 season promo contained the slogan "Same game, a different dream." In the league's first season, the Boston Dream had a winning streak that began with a huge win over the Beauty at followed by wins over the Flash and the Colorado She-Wolves. The MLWB added three new teams for 2001: the New York Flame, the Iowa Sky, and the Montreal Dazzle. Whilst the Flame and Dazzle played at regular MLB stadiums, being and respectively, the Sky played at the , normally a college football venue. As the UNI-Dome was designed with football and other sports than baseball in mind, many fans complained about seats with obstructed views, and players complained about the setup of the impromptu dugouts and bullpens. The eventually modified the baseball setup to add temporary seating to solve some of these issues for the 2003 season, however the Sky moved to in 2005. The Miami Bombshells won the Women's World Series at at the end of the season. The dominance of the Sky and further expansion (2003-2007) The Sky dominated the 2003 season with a line up of "all star" players such as Kimmy Hixson and Nina Sá-Albaladejo, eventually winning the Women's World Series in front of their hometown crowd in the UNI-Dome. In 2004, the Montreal Expos moved to Washington D.C., however the Dazzle stayed in Montreal due to a lawsuit against the Dazzle's staff threatening a expansion team without the Dazzle name if they moved to Washington along with the Expos. Meanwhile, the Iowa Sky continued to dominate. Teams * = Founded as demonstration team for the concept ° = Relocated